‘Drug dealers are going to prison’: AG Sessions tells prosecutors to seek maximum sentences

‘Attorney General Jeff Sessions is calling on federal prosecutors to charge criminal suspects with the most serious, provable, offenses under a new directive.
“By definition, the most serious offenses are those that carry the most substantial guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences,” the AG said.
Published Friday, the memo sets out the new ‘Charging and Sentencing Policy’ for the Department of Justice. Sessions states that the core principle of the new policy is that “prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense.”
Prosecutors “deserve to be unhandcuffed and not micromanaged from Washington,” Sessions said of the sentencing memo.
The AG acknowledged that there will be cases where a prosecutor will conclude that a strict application of the policy is not warranted, but any decision to diverge from the policy must be explained in the file and approved by a United States attorney or assistant attorney general.’
Read more: ‘Drug dealers are going to prison’: AG Sessions tells prosecutors to seek maximum sentences